News Scrapbook 1989

Los Angeles CA ( Los Angeles Co .) Los Angeles Daily Journal (Cir . 5 x W. 21 ,287) 7 - 9

JI.I(,,. 1 1 P. C, 8

E,r 1888

Bragg on the Law

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c e\le, N. ' m d their wmmn b\e-header to exU~~ capitalized on treak to (Ive. k. Graham had eigh errors _and c::~he first game. a two-run sm!: (2-4) won. and Pat Jam Fergu . first save. Fitzsimons got !\ame the Toreros In the econd f om' nve walks. l -S) benebte r ·t hes and two errors three wild p1 c . . USD's Pa nine-run third mnmg. a d two-run homer Sorianello ha / er Tony Battileg the fourth. ~e i;~ innings; Case (1-2) p1tche 3 (0-6). · _). Engan (0-2) lost for Iona L .,..... t

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/4arvey steps down as university trustee DIE ,0 - Former ba e- ball tar Stev Garvey has re- ingned as a Unlv_.e.rsicy an Di , o trust in the aftermat 6 pilbttctty about a paternity andal Involving two former lov rs. - J"' ..r Orficial at the private Catho- lic univ rsity rel d a short statement Thur day confirming Garv y's r I nation from the board of trust s.

Reprint.od from ' 'Cbarlell Bragg on the Law" Is O e In an occasional series of sardonic drawings by Charles Bragg that will be publlshed on this page.

Today the tate Supreme Oourt hears arguments in Sacramento on the lead suit attacking Proposition 103. ut what the justices will not hear is a discussion, pro or con, on he antitrust asp ct of the insuranc mea ure. The Daily Journ I has asked writers fro both sides to supply the missing arguments. Does 103 Return the Free Market to Insurance. • •

San Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) San Dieg_o Union (Cir D. 217 ,089) (Cir. S. 341 ,840) M 8 - .JU~11'• P. C. 8

malpract ce, local government, child care, tuna fishermen and dozens of other insurance lines have on to three compet- itors - penod Th industry can and doe fix prices d t n and does erect e ccllve entry amer$ . Even in the few areas where there are many competitors, such as auto insur- ance, we have the Insurance Services Of- fice , an industry pricing cartel service. This office issues so-called "advisory" rates for insurance companies. These rates are set to yield a profitlrom premi- The party Is over. urns alone, with the enormous invest- ment income mostly excessive profits above free-market levels. In most states, the ISO also issues a "final rate" that even includes a recom- mended allocation for operating ex- penses (regardless of the expenses of a given firm) . The ISO issued final rates in California until 1988, One would think that an industry ex- empt mm antitrust would naturally be subject to meaningful rate regulation. Doesn't that follow? No one gets a free lunch, right? Wrong The stat 's u,sur- ance commissioner, Roxam illespie,

and her predecessors have had all the intelligence, energy and strength of a two-week-old piece of celery. Over the past decade, commissioners have thrown out exactly one rate as excessive - out of tens of thousands. They have done vir- tually nothing about bad-faith insurance practices and outrageous failures to pay claims and all the other abuses by the industry The result of our current in titutional corruption is an industry with the ulti- mate free ride - no meaningful antitrust coverage and no rate regulation. Consid- er the 1988 election. The industry spent $60 million to $100 million (the most ever spent on a political campaign in U.S. his- tory) on the cynical and generally deceit- ful public campaign for its own bonanza bill (Proposition 104) and against reform propositions. Proposition 104 was a Tro- jan Horse initiative that spent pages sim- ply repeating the CWTent statute that gives the industry a!ltitrust immunity and freedom from rate regulation. Why did they do this? Because the industry inserted a provision requiring a two- thirds legislative vote to change anything in the proposition, thus "locking in" their privileged positionagainst the occasional vagaries of democratic response. The so- called "no-fault" system the industry ad-

vertised was a poorly written, minor part of the initiative. Something happened on Nov. 8, 1988. The voters just said no. Proposition 103 alone is no the final answer. It must be enforced in good faith by an insurance department, but apparently not this one. The antitrust section needs to be strengthened a bit. Rules are needed to flesh it out. The court needs to stop listen ing to the whimpering of the spoile in- surance brats who are trying to reverse a $100 million electoral loss to protec bil- lions in profits, using 80 attorne at $250 per hour each, while claimir 6 abJect poverty. We have a message for the industry: The party is over. The service you pro- vide is important. But those who provide it have not been crowned. Because that service is so important, we must have competition and disclosure as provided in Proposition 103. No free ride. No buying your way out. No side deals. The party is over. If you do not comply with the law - most ofwhich is now in effect - we have some pretty good antitrust attorneys in the state who will see you in court. Treble damages and attorneys fees. Class ac- tions. Indictments. The party is ove To quote Mr. Jacoby: "It's about tua(e." ---

San Diego, CA (San Diego Co.) Evening Tribune (Cir. D. 123,064)

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in urance and ..,.,nsfl.-. nee giant, fi r conspiracy to boycott (The Gs v what 11I1tilrust prosecu tors affectionately 11 "hot documents" verifying their h .) Plaintiff attom k Harvey Levine make fortun on bad faith insurance lawsuits - proVIDg egr gious acts of cal- lousn toward customers who have done nothing but pay their premium fo 20 )'CBl'S and then suffered an injury. Insurance expert Robert Hunter of the National Insurance Consumer Organiza- tion has detailed list of public deceits and misdemeanors. According to Hunter, insurance interests have written into law a requir ment that no rate may be found excessive unle there is too much "un- derwriting profit." Translated, this means that premiums must exceed oper- ating costs and claims paid. But wh t about all of the millions on the investment of those premium dollars (all paid In advance)? Those seem to disap- pear from sight. Hunter also says that even as to under· writing p ofit, the industry asks for high- er r t by nalng p• ...... must cover all co ts, claims fll d and claims that might be filed. It does this by creating an interesting. category called "incu d but not reported" claims. Transl ted, this means: "Hey, we could have to pay more claims than anybo.dy has filed, so let's set up a big liabi ty account, call oursel s poor and raise rates again - that's the ticket! And how about p1lmg it on some more; we'll take all these claim we may have to pay over the next 20 y~rs and e won t d1Scount to present value' We'll count the $1 billion we, re pretendingwe are g ing to have to pay m claim payments to victims over then 20 ye rs - as a present $1 billio:t liability ' How did this come to pass? It has l·ome to pass because the Ameri- can mo I has been subverted by orga- nizcd recd free from the critical safeguard we all rely on: a free and vig- orous marketplace. We have exempted this Industry from our critic.tl antitrust laws. We allow it to collude on prices in ways wh ch are - for the rest of Ameri- can bu n per se felonies. And we do so for no rticulable policy reason The indu t,y's antitrust exemption under the McCa1Tan Ferguson Act is not the prod- uct of any n idered policy debate. It is a renectlon or pure political muscle. The do try often unks the red-face te t while urgumg it is subject to compe- tition. It. f;ivorite argument Is to cite the very limit d prohibition against coercive boycot But the real problem in pnce- , fixing i voluntary a~ments, not coer• cion. Th in urance industry is not 600 finru; in ne market; it is highly frag. mented I. gal malpractice, medical Robert c Eellmeth is director of the Centt'l']Or Public Interest Law at the Uni- versity of San Diego School of Law and editor of the California Regulatory Law Reporter. He is also a profenor of con- sumer and regulatory law. He is part of the team defending Proposition 103 be- f

) feated Tole Mai:.~!,6, 7-5, 6-4 at I No. l singles totead Ball State past J host SDSU, 8-l. Noble also teamed with Scott Campbell to beat Marin- t kovic and Joe McDonough 6-3, 3-6, 6- -e 3 at No. 1 doubles. SDSU is 4-8; Ball 1 State 7-1 ... Mark Farren beat Tony Moses 4-6, 6-4. 6-2 at No. 2 singles to help hos! USD (1 1-3) down Navy (4-1), 7-2, in men's non-conference play .. Manolo Ortiz beat David Young 6-3, 6-0 at No. 1 singles to help Mesa (3-0) upset visiting Grossmont (2-1), 7-2, in Pacific Coast Conference play.

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By Kirk Kenney Tribune Sportswriter

a lot of adjustments. I'm not going to be able to do everything I did in high school. In high school, I was the same size as most of the peo- ple. Now I'm the small ·t. Now I just can't go coast-to-coast against five people." The yanks had to hurt more than Strickland let on. "Wayman is majoring jn diplo- macy," said Egan. It may also be called Eganese. The coach's message is coming through loud and clear. A season of struggle should give way to a season of success. It may come as soon as next season. USD was 2-10 in games decided by six points or less this season. Those are games won by veteran teams. The team USD had here two years ago could serve as an example. The Toreros had four senior starters and made an ap- pearance in the NCAA Tourna- ment. USO was 10-3 in games de- cided by six points or less. The 1988-89 season was an ex- perience. Now the foundation is in place. That was evident against Pepperdine. Strickland and fresh- man forwards Gylan Dottin and Kelvin Woods each played major roles in the game. Strickland and Dottin played more minutes than" anyone else on the team. Strickland ran the show. Dottin, who was co-WCAC Fresh- man of the Year, was handed the ball for the game's last shot. Woods led all scorers with a ca- reer-high 21 points. The foundation will continue to receive support from 6-foot-9 sophomore center Dondi BeU, who blossomed this season. More help arrives next season when redshirts John Jerome and Anthony Thomas join the fold. Jerome is a 6-8 senior center transfer from Arizona State. Thomas is a 6-3 freshman off- guard/small forward, who trans- ferred from Mesa CC in Arizona. And, of course, there will be next year's group of freshmen, like Escondido's Brooks Barn- hard. It all adds up to optimism. "I think we're going to be a bet- ter ballclub next l8MOll for two reasons,i' said Egan.. e're going to add some kids and we're going to be more mature. I feel a lot better (about next season) than I did coming into this season."

Heaping helpings of youth were served by the USO basketball team this season. And almost every team in the West Coast Ath- letic Conference came back for seconds. The only conference opponents who didn't beat USD twice this season were fourth-place USF and last-place Portland, which tied the Toreros with a 2-12 record in the WCAC. "I knew we .were in for a strug- gle," said USD coach Hank Egan, whose team listed fi ve freshmen and five sophomores on its 13- man roster. "I didn't know how much of a struggle it was going to beY USD opened the season with three wins, including a 64-53 vic- tory over New Mexico at The Pit. What struggle? What followed in the next two months were losses in 12 of 14 games. Oh, yes, that struggle. The Toreros struggled to the finish, winning just three of their last 10 games. USD concluded the season Sat- urday in San Francisco with a 72- 69 loss to Pepperdine in the first round of the the WCAC Tourna- ment. The Toreros completed the season with an 8-20 record. That's more losses in a single season than Egan ever has had in 18 sea- sons as a head coach. Is Egan in trouble? Not in the least. "Win at all costs" is a phi- losophy not practiced at USD. Egan, allowed to go about his business, has stocked the program with quality people. "The best thing about our team is the caliber of the kids we have," said Egan. "They're good basket- ball players, but they're great people." Freshman point guard Wayman Strickland epitomized the strug- gle. Strickland missed his first 12 shots of the season in an exhibi- tion game against Athletes in Ac- tion. He frequently made the wrong decisions m game situa- tions and had difficulty adjusting from high school basketball to Di- vision I college basketball. But he stuck with it. "I've been on him the whole year," said Egan. "I'd let him loose and yank him back, let him loose and yank him back." Said Strickland: "I had to make

opposes aJ?ortion_, President Hughes sa~ Open fo~~ on pro-life view planned on campus after Weddington's appeara~ce B D E P .-~ ------------------------•------- He said, I cannot spe y an . 1tre . . 'cl al h · Southern Crou USD is 'committeed to witness to and probe the md!VI U S W O compnse ALCALA PARK - The presidertt of community in reference Christian message as proclaimed by the Catholic individual views on (abonion;

Church.' ·... The university 'must hear all sides of an st listen to and learn from those w1·th issue·, we mu ·

the Universit y of San Diego has declared that USD is a Catholic institution and as such it upholds the church 's teaching that abonion is " a violauon of the sanctity of human life." a statement to Southern Cross March 7 in light of the scheduled appearance on -the campus March 10 of the lawyer who successfully argued the U.S. Supreme Coun case that led to legalized aboniori- on-demand. that the talk of the attorney, Sarah Weddington, which is sponsored by the Women's Law Caucus, would be restricted to the . university community. The caucus , a USD organization of first-year Jaw student , had I nned th Weddin on event as an open forum . He also announced that since "the Dr. Author E . Hughes issued Hughes re-confirmed what the university announced recently - One was Dorothy Courser, president of Catholics Concerned for Life, who asked him in a Feb. 17 letter to cancel the presentation. Hughes responded tersely in a lerrer Feb. 22 that the event would be open only to USD students and faculty, that Weddington would be discussing the Roe-,·s.-Wade ruling from a legal perspective and that he did "not intend to cancel her appearance" (Southern Cross, March 2) . But Hughes sent her another letter March 6, saymg his "has1y response ... did not give a full explanation and may have given an incorrect impression." As a Catholic university , USD "promotes the teaching of the church, especially in the matter of abomon," he wrote. "We acknowledge that d1recth intended abonion is opposed to the law of God, co the dignuy of the person, and to

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university's expectation employees respect the unive religious commitment to Church." He then addressed the q, can USD "permit a pn presentation?" "While the university is institution, it is first a univer continually search for tru divinely revealed or sc discovered.'' Thus, he said, the unive hear all sides of an issue; we r and learn from those with disagree." As Hughes pointed c statement , several area pro and individuals have expr concern over Weddington's Please tur,

whom we disagree.'

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Dr. Author E. Hughes, USD president

university has not recently presented an open forum on (the abonion) issue for the 'pro-life view .. . that omission will be rectified" next month. Father Peter Stravinskas, editor of Th, 'Catholrc Answer Magazine, Huntington, Ind., will speak in Salomon Lecture Hall at 7 p.m., April 4 on thr abonion issue "from a Roman Catholic perspective," Hughes related. Thf magazine is published by Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., to explore and exp am Catholic beliefs, traditions and history. Father Edward "Bud" Kaicher and the well-being of society," he wrote. Hughes said in the letter, "Those who would weaken laws which protect human life are posing both a threat to society itself and to the fundamental moral principles upon which society is based." USD "does not suppon the Supreme Coun's decision in Roe vs. Wade," he wrote, adding that Weddington 's "appearance on campus does not give credence to legalized abonion." · Since she will be dealing with the 1973 ruling "from a lawyer's perspective," her talk "provides an opponunity for law students to learn of the legal debate and to understand the court's decision as it forms the law of this country. "If future courts and future constitutional interpretations are to protect the moral rights of all individuals, including the unborn, our law graduates must analyze the court's decision," he wrote.

Susan Stark, both of the San Diego diocesan Youth and Young Adult Office, will be responders, he said. Father Kaicher, diocesan director of youth and young adult ministry, recently pleaded "no contest" to trespassing charges Feb. I, resulti11g from his arrest last September as he sat quietly next to the door of an abonion clinic in La Mesa holding a sign that read "Choose Life." ln stating the USD position, Hughes said, as a Catholic university, USD is "committed to witness to and probe the Chrisnan message as proclaimed by the Catholic Church. ''

'USD sup] o;t~ \church 's teaching on abortion' Continued from page 1 on the campus. he hopes she ''will

recognize the university does not have a neutral view of the abonion issue." He congratulated her on her "elTons to bring about a reversal of ... Roe vs. Wade and to protect the unborn child.'' He also encouraged her "to continue your grea} work for the sanctity of human life.'' .,,..

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